EV's, Reliable Power, et al

[Lokmar]

From local media on a current fire in a utility level battery storage center that no one can put out:

San Diego Firefighters have flown in experts to the Otay Mesa Battery Storage to study the fire because they do not know how to put it out
The Battery storage fire has already used 5 million gallons of water
Firefighters say it will take an additional 7-10 days to put out
They estimate it will take a total of 15-20 million gallons of water to put out
LETHAL amounts of Hydrogen Cyanide were in the air for 3 hours after the Otay Mesa Battery Storage fire began
This project does not belong in a residential area.

You can tell a lot by an elected representative by how they respond to the community. When the fire at the Otay Mesa battery storage facility broke out & La Mesa/San Carlos residents expressed concern. Councilwoman Laura Lothian went to the scene to get info for residents.

She will probably die from exposure.

[Herman]

Ahead of the 2020 election, then-candidate Joe Biden promised the American people in four debates and during his CNN town hall interview that he would build half a million new charging stations across the nation if elected.

After taking the White House, Biden reiterated his promise, stating in November 2021, "We're going to build out the first-ever national network of charging stations all across the country — over 500,000 of them. ... So you'll be able to go across the whole darn country, from East Coast to West Coast, just like you'd stop at a gas station now. These charging stations will be available."

That month, the then-Democrat-controlled Congress passed a corresponding $1 trillion infrastructure package. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and 18 other Republican lawmakers, evidently unswayed by former President Donald Trump's critiques, subsequently helped Democrats pass the measure in the U.S. Senate.

Of the 1,000 billion taxpayer dollars sunk into the bill, $73 billion was designated for updating the nation's electricity grid so it could carry more renewable energy and $7.5 billion to build Biden's promised EV charging stations by 2030.

According to the EV policy analyst group Atlas Public Policy, the funding designated for the rollout should be enough for at least 20,000 charging spots and 5,000 stations.

Now years into the scheme, it appears increasingly unlikely that Biden's costly promise will materialize.

In March, the Federal Highway Administration confirmed to the Washington Post that only seven of Biden's planned 500,000 EV charging stations were operational, amounting to a total of 38 spots for drivers in Hawaii, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to charge their vehicles.

Politico noted last year that that a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study estimated the country will need 1.2 million public chargers by 2030 to meet the demand artificially created by the Biden administration's climate agenda and corresponding regulations. As of June 2023, there were roughly 180,000 chargers nationwide.

House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and other Republican lawmakers penned a February letter to Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, expressing concerns that "American taxpayer dollars are being woefully mismanaged."

[Oerdin]

https://youtu.be/tqcDyHdbYd4?si=vgrAXBYSDpFsughp

[Oerdin]

https://youtu.be/RVpFuSWkXHs?si=WUTekY6pZTVVFYJk

[DKG]

https://youtu.be/tqcDyHdbYd4?si=vgrAXBYSDpFsughp

Michael Schellengerg is lnowledgeable on climate science without any of the apocalyptic exaggeration.

[DKG]

https://youtu.be/RVpFuSWkXHs?si=WUTekY6pZTVVFYJk

Zuihan thinks the election is a lock for Biden.

[Oerdin]

Zuihan thinks the election is a lock for Biden.

His reasoning is unsound on that topic.  Not to mention outdated.

[DKG]

His reasoning is unsound on that topic.  Not to mention outdated.

I was surprised by that too.

[Herman]

I got this in an email. I am not sure who wrote it.

t's become common for some politicians to present a transition away from fossil fuels as similar to other historical transitions in which societies abandoned old energy sources in favor of new ones. But this time really is different. Consumers in previous societies embraced new technologies because they afforded easier and cheaper ways to sustain and enhance life.

The contemporary mania is to abandon consumer preference and instead enforce a trade-down to uneconomical but politically favored methods of powering our lives. So it's important to understand just how far the new government mandate and subsidy systems will travel away from economic sense.

In a new study for the National Center for Energy Analytics, Jonathan Lesser considers the expense of just one aspect of the politically directed transition: the changes needed to support a country full of electric-car drivers, beyond the cost of the cars themselves. Mr. Lesser sets the scene:
In their stated efforts to reduce carbon emissions, 18 states (as of this writing) have approved regulations that will require all new vehicle sales to be electric vehicles (EVs) beginning in 2035. Similar mandates have been enacted for heavy trucks, which transport most goods in the country, although they will begin later.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced stringent carbon dioxide emissions standards for new vehicles, which the agency admits can only be met by automakers selling more EVs and fewer gasoline-powered vehicles.

While "make-it-so" mandates may be politically popular, physical and economic realities will ultimately prevail. The move to enforce an all-EV future, regardless of claimed environmental merits (which are hotly disputed), requires infrastructure to support it. However, that means far more than installing charging stations at home and work.

Too little discussion has been devoted to the scale and cost of the infrastructure needed to deliver the electricity to those charging stations. Even if the additional electricity can be supplied, it must still be delivered—and that remains the least-discussed aspect of this new transformation.

Mr. Lesser figures "the physical infrastructure needed to support an all-EV future will entail overall costs ranging between $2 trillion and almost $4 trillion. That is before considering the impact of higher demand on the costs of materials and labor to build it all and also before considering the additional costs to build more electricity generation." He adds:
To enable an EV future that provides the same freedom of movement we enjoy today will require massive upgrades to the entire electrical delivery system. Home chargers, which are called "Level 2" chargers, will require dedicated circuits, like electric stoves and electric clothes dryers do. The main circuit boxes in millions of older homes to which electricity is delivered will need to be upgraded.

To accommodate the increased electricity needed for EV charging (and other electrification goals), electric utilities will also have to upgrade their local distribution systems—the poles and wires running down streets—with millions of larger transformers, thousands (if not millions) of miles of larger wires, and even bigger utility poles to handle the additional weight.

On and on he goes, noting the thousands of miles of new or rewired transmission lines and the millions of tons of specialized metals involved in this proposed undertaking.
Many Americans were chuckling along with Margaret Brennan of CBS recently while listening to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg try to explain why his multibillion-dollar program had resulted I so few charging stations.. But nobody will be laughing if several zeroes are added to the taxpayer cost of EV virtue signals.

Speaking of the Buttigieg bumbling, some readers through this column should have mentioned the contrast between the federal failure and the speed at which Elon Musk's Tesla has been creating charging stations. But remember Mr. Musk is only one man and on his own cannot persuade all Americans to abandon their gas-powered cars.
The Journal's Jennifer Hiller, Sean McLain and Ryan Felton reported last month:
Tesla's move this week to lay off much of the team responsible for creating the largest and most successful  electric-vehicle charging network in the U.S. threw the industry into a state of shock and confusion...

The upheaval comes as the EV industry struggles with sluggish sales growth and a bumpy rollout of a national highway-charging network.

Tesla has long been the bright spot in a messy charging world, outbuilding and outperforming other companies to create the closest thing the U.S. has to a national highway network, considered the linchpin to greater EV adoption. A Tesla pullback in EV charging could slow the entire U.S. market.

Even the most fervent believers in the EV dream would say we're going to need a lot more Elon Musk's. Unfortunately the giant proxy advisory firms are urging investors to mistreat the only one we currently have—by denying him compensation he's already earned.

Even if the proxy advisors suddenly begin to behave, there is no getting around the titanic cost of this unprecedented attempt to change the way Americans get from here to there.

[Oerdin]

I was surprised by that too.

Just last Monday he was insisting that Biden would win in a blow out due to Trump getting convicted in the sham trial which Federal courts will toss out. 

[DKG]

Just last Monday he was insisting that Biden would win in a blow out due to Trump getting convicted in the sham trial which Federal courts will toss out. 

Take his predictions with a grain of salt.

[Herman]

[Shen Li]

LOL, sustainability

[Oliver the Second]

Fire crews battle Phoenix garage fire involving 'homemade electrical cars'



PHOENIX — Investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that engulfed two cars and damaged a home in north Phoenix Tuesday morning.

Fire crews were dispatched to a home near Cactus and Cave Creek roads around 7:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a garage fire.

Firefighters discovered two vehicles, which were determined to be "homemade electrical cars," were on fire.

Hazardous materials crews were called to the scene as a precaution during the emergency.

Photos from the scene showed extensive damage to both vehicles, as well as serious damage to the front of the home.

Everyone inside the home evacuated safely and no injuries were reported.

https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/north-phoenix/fire-crews-battle-phoenix-garage-fire-involving-homemade-electrical-cars

[Brent]

Gas-powered blowers are being targeted by governments across the country. A ban in California starts next month, and similar measures have passed in Washington, D.C., Portland, Oregon; Montgomery County, Maryland; Burlington, Vermont; and Evanston, Illinois, among other places.

I use our gasoline powered blower more in winter than in summer. It is perfect for blowing light snow off of the front steps, walks, and driveway.